Following Jesus is not easy when you’re a practical planner like me. Nope, Jesus and I look at life differently, so I have to figure out how to be more like Jesus while staying true to the real me. I agree with Jesus on the things he cared about: universal health care (John 5; John 4:46-54; Mark 1); the value of women; treating everybody with respect. Treating everybody with equal respect is tricky for me, and I’m not 100 percent there, but I believe in it. I do. When it comes to somebody I look up to Jesus is the man.
In Women of the ELCA’s discipleship resource: “Lessons for Today’s Disciples,” we learn the seven marks of following Jesus (because that’s what a disciple is, a follower of Jesus). The seven ways to follow Jesus include: praying, studying, worshiping, inviting, encouraging, serving, and giving.
Let’s see; I’m good at one, two, maybe three of those things. So, I’ve got some work to do. And I bet I’m not alone. I’m going to guess that only a few of you score high on all the ways to follow Jesus. Is following Jesus really easy for any of us? Nobody said being a Christian is a piece of cake.
This message is an excerpt from a Women of the ELCA blog by Terri Lackey.
Daily Grace has been offering you things to ponder and things to pray about for more than 10 years. For free. Women of the ELCA provides many other free online resources, too—see welca.org/resources. Please support Women of the ELCA at welca.org/give.
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